Edward Livermore
AUBURN – A 57-year-old Livermore Falls man remained in jail Friday night, charged with possessing thousands of photos of young boys in sexually explicit poses.
Investigators said when they searched Edward Livermore’s home computer, they found 2,600 images of children in a folder labeled “Boys.” The majority of the photos showed boys between the ages of 1 to 10 years old, investigators said.
Livermore, of 61 Souther Road, was arrested Wednesday after an investigation that spanned more than four years. He has a criminal history that includes a conviction on four counts of unlawful sexual touching in 1996 in the Augusta area.
He was held at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn on $10,000 cash bail. After making an initial court appearance Friday, bail was lowered to $2,000 cash. He remained in jail Friday night.
Bail conditions set by Maine Pretrial Services include no contact with children younger than 16 and no possession of any electronic devices capable of accessing the internet.
According to a court document written by Maine State Police Sgt. Christopher Tupper, the investigation began in October 2015 when police began receiving tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Those early reports pertained to child pornography reported to have been circulated on Facebook, on AOL and in the video hosting service Vid.me.
According to court documents, one particular user was reported to have uploaded six files featuring child pornography to his computer. With the user’s online identity in hand, police issued a subpoena to FairPoint Communications, asking it to identify the user by his IP address. A few weeks later, FairPoint complied and police were given Livermore’s name.
At the time, Tupper was assigned to the State Police Computer Crimes Unit. He viewed the images reported to have been uploaded by Livermore. According to the affidavit, the photos depicted young boys engaging in sex acts or posing alone in explicit ways. Most of the boys appeared to be around 10 years old, Tupper wrote.
Meanwhile, more reports of child pornography were linked to Livermore in late 2015 after Facebook and Vid.me alerted the NCMEC that a user had uploaded pictures and videos through their services. Again, police were able to use an IP address to link those files to their suspect.
The investigation continued into 2016, with more images reported to be uploaded to a user believed to be Livermore. In March of that year, Tupper secured a search warrant for Livermore’s home on Souther Road. Livermore was home at the time, police said, and was interviewed by Tupper.
“During the interview with Livermore, he admitted to the possession of thousands of images/videos of child pornography,” Tupper wrote.
But Livermore was not arrested at that time. Instead, police cloned the contents of his computer so they could continue their investigation. A forensic examination of Livermore’s computer continued into 2019, according to the affidavit. By the time it was finished, police had located 2,600 images of young boys either posing alone or engaged in sex acts with others.
In all, Livermore was charged with 30 counts of Class C possession of sexually explicit material.
In court this week, Lewiston attorney Jeff Dolley was appointed to represent Livermore, who’s next court appearance was scheduled for March 17.
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